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Dodd: presidential bid vs. domestic bliss

By Betsy Rothstein

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) faces a wrenching personal decision as he considers a bid for president in 2004.

Much like his own father, who was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Nazi trials when Dodd was a year old, he knows a presidential campaign would leave him little time for the baby daughter born two days after Sept. 11.

THOMAS BUTLER For the first time, home life is tugging at Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

At the same time, Dodd must confront another troubling possibility: That he could end up running against his junior Democratic colleague and good friend, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.).

While he denies the thought of running for president is anything more than a consideration, Dodd seems to warm to the idea of challenging President Bush, a man he considers a good politician and a good person who has “bad ideas.”

“Anybody who has ever run for City Council has given it some thought and anybody who tells you otherwise is not being terribly candid with you,” said Dodd, erupting into a contagious belly laugh.

Dodd remembers when he’d grow bored listening to other parents talk about their children. Yet, even without children of his own and the belief that he would never have any, he made it his mission to win passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, signed into law in 1993.

But with the birth of his first child, Grace, those days of distant empathy are gone, and it’s all the 57-year-old senator can do to keep himself from talking about the “exaggerated sense of joy” he feels.

“She’s 4 months old, and she owns me,” an ebullient Dodd said last week in his Russell Building office, apparently oblivious to whether his listeners were tiring of his talk of diaper changes and delivery room memories. “I’m just completely owned,” he said.

But even as he hints that he may run, he deflates the idea.

“I haven’t done anything terribly overt about it,” he says, noting that he spent the past week meeting with small-town officials back home. “I know this gets said and it always sounds so damn trite, but I’m really happy doing what I’m doing.”

But somehow the subject of his presidential ambitions won’t go away.

It came up during a dinner with former Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) in late December after Dodd gave a speech at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.

During dinner at the Charles Hotel, Pryor told Dodd he should run for president because “the country really needs a guy with your experience and your ability to motivate people.” According to Pryor, Dodd said he’d think about it.

“I was probably buying dinner,” said Dodd, breaking out into his familiar laughter. “I expect he [Pryor] says that to all the girls. I don’t know. It was very flattering. David and I were seatmates in the Senate — and that was by choice. I have great affection for David Pryor.”

And many people have great affection for Dodd.

Just ask Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). With no statewide campaign experience, she ran Dodd’s first Senate campaign and served as his chief of staff for seven years. In 1986 DeLauro was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and underwent radiation treatments for four months during a campaign year.

“I went to tell him what was going on,” recalled an emotional DeLauro, who had been planning to run his reelection campaign. “He says, ‘You are my chief of staff. When you get back, the campaign begins.’”

DeLauro returned to work in late July and the campaign began. “There are not too many people who would do that,” she said.

But not everyone believes Dodd ought to be the Democratic nominee in 2004. “He just lights up a room,” said Mack McLarty, President Bill Clinton’s first chief of staff. But he adds, “I just got a lot of good friends who may be interested in that position.”

With a mane of white hair and thick dark eyebrows, Dodd walks into his office, takes off his jacket and hangs it haphazardly on a doorknob. This is signature Dodd: free of formalities and minus the stuffiness of some politicians.

Dodd’s office matches his personality. With preppy red and cream striped upholstered armchairs, large photographs of sailboats on the walls, and an odd assortment of knick-knacks that include a bottle he found in the fireplace, the place is neither neat nor messy.

Born and raised in West Hartford, Conn. Dodd grew up in a big white house with lots of bedrooms and bunk beds enough for him and his four brothers and sister.

His older brother, Tom, a professor at American University, recalls his brother at 7 years old who would often describe older people as “very good friends of his.”

For instance, young Chris Dodd would say, “I’d like you to meet an old friend of mine,” and the “old” friend would be a friend of his father’s such as Gen. David Sarnoff, founder of the Radio Corporation of America.

“He was absolutely not shy,” said Tom Dodd.

Distinguished politicians and people of prominence often visited the household. But his father, the late Sen. Tom Dodd, was enveloped in the world of politics and often wasn’t there.

The senator’s brother recalled that someone once came to their door selling something. Dodd’s mother answered the door with young Chris trailing behind her. “’And of course, we have a father too,’” Dodd told the peddler, according to his brother.

Known for his friendships with lawmakers from both parties, Dodd talks often and affectionately of others, even of President Bush.

“I don’t know this president at all,” he began, explaining that his father ran a losing race against Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, for the Senate in 1956, and later served with him when he was elected two years later.

During a joint session of Congress in late September, Dodd was sitting two or three rows back from the dais when he felt someone grab his hand.

To his surprise, it was Bush. He asked, “How’s that Grace doing?” referring to Dodd’s 7-day-old daughter.

“He’s a good politician,” remarked Dodd. “That’s the highest compliment that I can give someone in this profession. And he’s a good person.”

Nevertheless, Dodd questions the direction of the country with Bush at the helm. “You can have a very warm appreciation for someone,” explained Dodd.

“This is not about disliking people. This is about what you see as an agenda for a country and where you see it going.”

Dodd believes Bush’s high poll numbers will fall.

“They’re going to be fooled,” he said. “I don’t think those numbers are an accurate reflection about people’s plans. There is a vulnerability there.”

He added, “It’s not Enron per say. It may be too much coziness with Corporate America at the expense of people who lose their retirements. I sense for the first time in a number of years an unease by working people.”

Dodd takes a stab at the president in a way few have dared in the past four months.

“There is a sense of fragileness here, that we’re vulnerable, that 19 people could board four aircraft and reap unimaginable horror on a country. You realize how vulnerable you are despite your other strengths.”

At a recent meeting of small-town officials in Litchfield, Dodd cast Bush in an unfavorable light by mentioning how Sept. 11 has prompted boosts of fate for many politicians, particularly Bush, whose poll numbers weren’t high.

Dodd has no fear of seeing his past scrutinized, including well-publicized partying with one of his closest friends, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the ‘80s. “These things end up taking a mythical dimension over time,” said Dodd. “I was a single guy in the Senate. I wasn’t shy and retiring.”

In 1996, President Clinton asked Dodd to chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC). It turned out to be a mixed blessing after he was forced to deny charges that DNC fundraiser John Huang raised millions in illegal contributions. He stepped down in 1997.

“I know he thought he was doing his duty, but it was not the Chris Dodd I know,” said Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) “The Chris Dodd I know is more of a straight shooter. For him it may have been a high point, but for my constituents who respect him it was kind of a low point.”

But a more serious setback came in his one-vote defeat by Sen. Tom Daschle (S.D.) in the contest for Democratic leader in 1994.

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) calls the birth of Dodd’s daughter a “rebirth” for him, but believes he hasn’t ruled out a presidential bid.

“It’s pretty clear it’s been in the back of his mind,” said Larson, who says Dodd’s daughter undoubtedly adds a complicated dimension to his political road map.

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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; RPCV News - What RCVs are doing today; COS Dominican Republic; US Peace Corps - Congressional Relations

Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; RPCV News - What RCVs are doing today; COS Dominican Republic; US Peace Corps - Congressional Relations

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